Afghans fear foreign aid loss

Afghan street children are packed into classrooms, raising their hands to answer math questions and bending their heads over art projects as part of a program funded by the European Union.

But the money is about to disappear after a four-year grant expires next month, and the Afghan government isn’t ready to fill the gap. That leaves thousands of poor children who spend most of their days hawking goods on the street poised to lose their only access to an education.

The impending withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign combat forces means more than a loss of firepower. International aid is also on the decline because of donor fatigue and fears of deteriorating security after nearly 12 years of war.

The pullout of most international troops by the end of 2014 will leave many areas without the protection required for foreign aid workers. Even those workers who have more freedom of movement are concerned violence will increase as Afghan troops take over and the Taliban push to regain control.

Worried about losing hard-won gains, many Afghan and international aid organizations are racing to finish projects or find new sources of funding to provide basic services such as health care, education and electricity that the weak central government has been unable to deliver.

“The situation in Afghanistan is day by day becoming critical, but the international community is less interested,” said Mohammad Yousef, founder of the children’s program Aschiana.

Afghanistan has received $60 billion in international civilian assistance since 2002. In a bid to defuse concerns about a mass exodus, international donors last year pledged $16 billion in development aid for Afghanistan through 2015, but they also promised to channel half of that through the Afghan government despite concerns about corruption and mismanagement.

The money that has flowed into Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S. invasion that ousted the Taliban and their al-Qaida allies has led to drastic improvements, with nearly 8 million children, some 40 percent of them girls, enrolled in school — up from just over 1 million when girls were banned from school under the Taliban.

The U.S. Agency for International Development in Afghanistan also has built or refurbished more than 680 schools, and child mortality has been halved with improved health facilities and other services.

But Afghan and international activists are worried projects could be abandoned and progress reversed.

“There is the prospect of a lot of white elephants being left behind. That’s a really sad prospect,” said Louise Hancock, head of policy and advocacy for Oxfam in Afghanistan.

“People are fed up with Afghanistan,” she said. “A lot of people are worried they haven’t got value for what’s been put in.”

With its own development budget for Afghanistan slashed nearly in half, the U.S. has shifted its priorities from quick-fix projects showing immediate results such as building schools, clinics and other infrastructure to trying to help the Afghan government operate and maintain the facilities and develop programs.

The European Union is maintaining its development aid levels at about $330 million a year, but it too is increasingly channeling that money through the Afghan government.

Afghan officials insist the shift may mean more money but that it will be used more efficiently after years of uncoordinated spending.

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